WATCH: Pete Buttigieg is a Fox News Regular; He Explains Why

Openly gay Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg is a regular target of abuse from the GOP's anti-LGBTQ+ extremist fringe. It doesn't stop him from frequently braving Fox News, and he has a reason for that.

As Buttigieg explained to PBS News, it's just about the facts, man – facts, that is, that Fox viewers might not have a chance to hear about if he stayed away from the conservative channel, which is known for its emphasis on right-wing opinion.

"I'm pretty sure that a majority of Fox viewers sincerely are unaware that crime went down in this country after Donald Trump was defeated because it just wasn't reported very much on that network," Buttigieg told PBS News. "So to the extent that they're willing to invite me there, I think it's important for me to take the opportunity."

Indeed, he "takes the opportunity" so often that he made a joke of it himself at the Democratic National Convention this week; as PBS News noted, Buttigieg introduced himself at the DNC by saying, "You might recognize me from Fox News."

In his PBS News appearance, Buttigieg tackled a central disconnect that has persisted in the GOP's messaging for years: On the one hand, the Republican party talks endlessly about personal liberties and freedom, and harps on "family values," but in its policy pursuits the party has targeted queer families and individuals with demonizing rhetoric and calls for restrictions on personal freedoms.

Buttigieg himself has been mocked by MAGA Republicans for being the father of adopted twin children.

"Yeah, I think it's important right now to make clear that to really be there for families means being there for all families, including families that look like my family and families that might look different" from the GOP's oft-cited "model family" of a man, a woman, and children.

Indeed, the GOP candidate for the vice presidency, J. D. Vance, famously accused Democrats of being "childless cat ladies" who, he claimed, were intent on spreading misery to the nation as a whole as a result of their own supposedly empty lives.

At the same time, however, some elements in the GOP have clung to rhetoric that suggests marriage equality for queer families, granted by the Supreme Court in a 2015 decision, should be revoked. Project 2025, the playbook devised by The Heritage Foundation for swiftly implementing drastic changes to government and society should Donald Trump win a second term, puts queer families squarely in the crosshairs; a summary of the 900-page document by the BBC notes that Project 2025 calls for federal agencies to "maintain a biblically based, social science-reinforced definition of marriage and family" and prescribes barring certain terms from federal policies such as "sexual orientation".

"I think people in this country are really tired of politicians imposing their own vision of what your family ought to be like," Buttigieg told PBS News.

In his bid for the Democratic nomination in 2020, Buttigieg spoke about uniting the country once again, observing that the day after the election there would still be bitter divisions that an effective and sincere national leader would need to address.

Buttigieg had been talking about himself in 2020, but now, he told PBS News, Vice President Kamala Harris, who officially accepted the Democratic nomination for president, would be such a leader, saying that Harris has "demonstrated both as vice president and as leader of our party her capacity to bring people together, which is so important right now."

Watch Buttigieg's comments to PBS News below.